View source for WPXS

{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2023}}
{{Short description|Television station in Mount Vernon, Illinois}}
{{Infobox television station dual
| name1 = WPXS
| city1 = [[Mount Vernon, Illinois]]
| logo = 
| branding = 
| digital1 = 13 ([[VHF]])
| virtual1 = 13
| affiliations = {{ubl|'''13.1/51.1:''' [[Daystar Television Network|Daystar]]|''for others, see {{section link||Subchannels}}''}}
| owner = [[Daystar Television Network]]
| licensee = Word of God Fellowship, Inc.
| country = United States
| airdate1 = {{start date and age|1983|2|28|p=y}}
| last_airdate = 
| callsign_meaning1 = {{ubl|Pax Southern Illinois|-or-|Pax St. Louis (after former owner and network affiliation)}}
| sister_stations = 
| former_callsigns1 = WCEE (1983–1998)
| former_channel_numbers1 = {{ubl|'''Analog:''' 13 (VHF, 1983–2009)|'''Digital:''' 21 (UHF, until 2020)}}
| former_affiliations1 = {{ubl|[[Independent station|Independent]] (1983–1998)|[[Ion Television|Pax/i/Ion]] (1998–2004)|Daystar (2004–2005)|Retro TV (2005–2010)}}
| erp1 = 160 kW
| haat1 = {{convert|163|m|ft|0|abbr=on}}
| facility_id1 = 40861
| coordinates1 = {{Coord|38|21|53.6|N|89|53|23.5|W|type:landmark_scale:2000|display=inline, title}}
| licensing_authority = [[FCC]]
| website = 
| name2 = KUMO-LD
| city2 = [[St. Louis]], Missouri
| digital2 = 32 ([[UHF]])
| virtual2 = 51
| former_callsigns2 = {{ubl|K07TV (1983–1997)|K40FF (1997–2004)|KUMO-LP (2004–2011)}}
| former_channel_numbers2 = {{ubl|'''Analog:''' 7 (VHF, 1983–1997), 40 (UHF, 1997–1999), 51 (UHF, 1999–2011)|'''Digital:''' 51 (UHF, 2011–2018)}}
| erp2 = 15 kW
| haat2 = {{convert|256.2|m|ft|0|abbr=on}}
| facility_id2 = 10291
| class2 = [[Low-power broadcasting#Television|LD]]
| coordinates2 = {{Coord|38|34|27.9|N|90|19|31.9|W|type:landmark_scale:2000}}
}}

'''WPXS''' (channel 13) is a [[religious television station]] licensed to [[Mount Vernon, Illinois]], United States, serving the [[St. Louis]] area. The station is [[owned and operated]] by the [[Daystar Television Network]]. WPXS' transmitter is located on Five Forks Road near [[New Athens, Illinois]]. Although Mount Vernon is part of the [[Paducah, Kentucky]]–[[Cape Girardeau, Missouri]]–[[Harrisburg, Illinois]] [[television market]], WPXS is assigned by [[Nielsen Media Research|Nielsen]] to the larger St. Louis market.

==History==
===Southern Illinois's independent===
Channel 13 at Mount Vernon—the last VHF television allocation in southern Illinois, added in 1970 after a years-long fight that depleted the resources of the aspiring station owners{{r|proposed}}—emerged as a bone of contention when the Southern Illinois Broadcasting Corporation, a subsidiary of Evans Broadcasting, was granted a construction permit in 1979. Southern Illinois Broadcasting had been one of three competing applicants for the channel, alongside a group of local businessmen and Bill Varecha, owner of [[Murphysboro]] radio station WTAO, under the name Pyramid Broadcasting Corporation. Evans fueled a prolonged legal fight that prompted Varecha to reach a settlement agreement. However, opposition arose because Evans Broadcasting owned St. Louis [[independent station]] [[KDNL-TV]] and intended for channel 13 to repeat it 95 percent of the time. A local landowner who owned a strategically located parcel that Evans considered for the transmitter refused to lease it.<ref name="proposed">{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/64864700/|title=Will proposed area TV outlet be more than satellite?|first=Ed|last=Bean|work=The Southern Illinoisan|page=27|date=August 19, 1979|access-date=December 20, 2020}}</ref> The landowner and others formed the Citizens Committee for Independent Local Television in Southern Illinois to oppose the grant of the permit. Evans argued that Mount Vernon, a town with a population of 18,000, could not sustain the station, and that national advertising revenues would be poor since the station would be located in the St. Louis market without covering St. Louis.{{r|proposed}}

Evans pressed ahead despite the opposition. It had segments of a {{cvt|1000|ft|m|adj=on|sp=us}} tower waiting at a site near [[Salem, Illinois|Salem]] when the FCC, responding to the Citizens Committee's appeals, rescinded the grant of the permit. In early 1980, however, it sold KDNL-TV and announced it was pulling out of contention for channel 13, saying it wanted to avoid "years of litigation".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/64864749/|title=Independent TV Channel 13—A step nearer to reality?|first=Ed|last=Bean|work=The Southern Illinoisan|page=28|date=February 24, 1980|access-date=December 20, 2020}}</ref> The Pyramid application was reinstated in 1981, and in June 1982, the FCC granted it a construction permit.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/65713961/|access-date=December 20, 2020|date=June 18, 1982|page=3|work=The Southern Illinoisan|first=H.B.|last=Koplowitz|title=Carbondale man gets permit for TV channel}}</ref>

WCEE, known on air as "C-13", began broadcasting February 28, 1983. Its program schedule heavily emphasized programming of interest to southern Illinois viewers that St. Louis stations did not offer; channel 13 aired the [[Chicago White Sox]], [[Chicago Cubs]], and Illinois high school and college sports, and it started a local news department.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/65714239/|pages=1, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/65714185/ 2]|date=February 27, 1983|work=The Southern Illinoisan|first=Cathy A.|last=Monroe|title=WCEE: Newest TV station gets ready for airwaves|access-date=December 20, 2020}}</ref> After operating the station nearly three years, Pyramid sold WCEE to Sudbrink Broadcasting for $3.6 million in late 1985.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1985/BC-1985-09-30.pdf|access-date=December 20, 2020|date=September 30, 1985|work=Broadcasting|title=Changing Hands|page=109}}</ref> The sale of the station, which was struggling with cable carriage but financially successful, raised capital for Varecha to build television stations in [[Melbourne, Florida]], and [[Paducah, Kentucky]]; it also marked Sudbrink's first television property.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/65715496/|title=Varecha sells WCEE-TV|first=Dave|last=DeWitte|work=The Southern Illinoisan|date=October 20, 1985|access-date=December 20, 2020|page=12}}</ref>

Under Sudbrink, the station remained an independent airing programming oriented to southern Illinois. In 1994, WCEE was purchased by McEntee Broadcasting for $1.475 million.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1995/BC-1995-02-27.pdf|date=February 27, 1995|work=Broadcasting & Cable|page=45|title=Special Report: Station sales encore in '94|access-date=December 20, 2020}}</ref>

===Pax years===
[[File:Wpxs_pax13_mtvernon.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Earlier possible non-broadcast logo.]]
Christian Network, a company backed by [[Lowell Paxson]], bought WCEE from McEntee in 1995 for $3.2 million, representing a doubling of the purchase price McEntee had paid just a year prior.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1995/BC-1995-09-18.pdf|title=WCEE(TV) Mount Vernon, Ill./St. Louis|date=September 18, 1995|work=Broadcasting & Cable|access-date=December 20, 2020|page=35}}</ref> A year later, WCEE and three other Christian Network stations were sold to Paxson Communications—the forerunner of [[Ion Media Networks]]—for $18.3 million.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1996/BC-1996-05-13.pdf|access-date=December 20, 2020|title=Changing Hands|work=Broadcasting & Cable|page=30}}</ref>

As part of the launch of the [[Ion Television|Pax TV]] network in 1998, WCEE became the designated St. Louis station. It changed its call sign to the current WPXS and began simulcasting on a translator in St. Louis, KUMO-LP (channel 40, later 51). The WPXS transmitter, which was located north of [[Kell, Illinois]], was close enough to St. Louis to cover most of the Illinois portion of the St. Louis market; St. Louis itself was served by KUMO-LP.

===Equity and Daystar===
In 2004, the station affiliated with the Daystar [[religious broadcasting|religious broadcast]] network. The following year, [[Equity Broadcasting]] bought the station from Paxson; WPXS subsequently rejoined Pax (which rebranded as i: Independent Television that summer, and then to [[Ion Television]] in 2007).

In 2005, WPXS affiliated with the [[Retro Television Network]], a network owned by Equity at the time. By this time, the bulk of the station's audience was located in St. Louis. In 2010, Daystar purchased WPXS outright; this resulted in the station switching back to the network on August 12 of that year. With that move, [[DirecTV]] pulled WPXS from its St. Louis local station lineup on September 11, 2010, as WPXS had become a straight simulcast of Daystar's national feed (unlike fellow religious network, [[Trinity Broadcasting Network|TBN]], Daystar's television stations do not produce any local programming). On [[Dish Network]], the provider lists Daystar programming as airing on WPXS, though the provider continues to offer the Retro Television Network feed.

==Technical information==
===Subchannels===
The station's signal is [[Multiplex (TV)|multiplexed]]:
{| class="wikitable"
|+Subchannels of WPXS<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=station_search&callsign=WPXS#station|title=RabbitEars TV Query for WPXS|website=[[RabbitEars.info]]|accessdate=January 6, 2025}}</ref>
! scope = "col" | [[Digital subchannel#United States|Channel]]
! scope = "col" | [[Display resolution|Res.]]
! scope = "col" | [[Aspect ratio (image)|Aspect]]
! scope = "col" | Short name
! scope = "col" | Programming
|-
! scope = "row" | 13.1 
| [[1080i]] || rowspan=2|[[16:9]] || Daystar || [[Daystar Television Network|Daystar]]
|-
! scope = "row" | 13.2 
| rowspan=3|[[480i]] || Retro || [[Retro TV]] 
|-
! scope = "row" | 13.3 
| [[4:3]] || WPXS-ES || Daystar Español
|-
! scope = "row" | 13.4 
| [[16:9]] || WPXS-SD || Daystar Reflections
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+Subchannels of KUMO-LD<ref>{{Cite web |title=Digital TV Market Listing for KUMO-LD |url=https://rabbitears.info/market.php?request=station_search&callsign=10291 |access-date=December 15, 2022 |website=rabbitears.info |language=en}}</ref>
! scope = "col" | [[Digital subchannel#United States|Channel]]
! scope = "col" | [[Display resolution|Res.]]
! scope = "col" | [[Aspect ratio (image)|Aspect]]
! scope = "col" | Short name
! scope = "col" | Programming
|-
! scope = "row" | 51.1 
| [[720p]] || rowspan=2|[[16:9]] || KUMO || [[Daystar Television Network|Daystar]]
|-
! scope = "row" | 51.2 
| rowspan=2|[[480i]] || D-Latin || Daystar Español
|-
! scope = "row" | 51.3 
| [[4:3]] || Retro || [[Retro TV]]
|}

===Analog-to-digital conversion===
WPXS opted to build its digital transmitter in [[Saint Rose, Illinois]], which is part of the St. Louis market. The station shut down its analog signal, over [[VHF]] channel 13, on April 30, 2009. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition [[UHF]] channel 21, using [[virtual channel]] 13.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf |title=DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds |format=PDF |access-date=March 24, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130829004251/http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf |archive-date=August 29, 2013 }}</ref>

The station's signal now covers areas of the St. Louis market east of the [[Mississippi River]], including [[Belleville, Illinois|Belleville]], [[Edwardsville, Illinois|Edwardsville]] and [[Alton, Illinois]]. After the switchover, the broadcast radius of WPXS' digital signal covered a smaller area than the former analog signal, resulting in the loss of the station's reception to nearly 93,000 viewers in [[Effingham County, Illinois|Effingham]], [[Clay County, Illinois|Clay]] and [[Wayne County, Illinois|Wayne]] counties and large portions of [[Franklin County, Illinois|Franklin]], [[Hamilton County, Illinois|Hamilton]], [[Jefferson County, Illinois|Jefferson]], [[Jasper County, Illinois|Jasper]], [[Richland County, Illinois|Richland]] and [[Shelby County, Illinois|Shelby]] counties in Illinois. KUMO-LD [[flash-cut]] its digital signal into operation in June 2011, without an RTV subchannel. Although WPXS' digital transmitter creates redundancies with KUMO-LP on the Illinois side of the St. Louis market, the transmitter still provides only [[rimshot (broadcasting)|rimshot]] coverage of the Missouri side of the market, most likely due to the need to protect the transmitter of [[KRCG]] in [[Jefferson City]] on nearby digital channel 12.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Cable/Orders/1997/da971002.txt FCC Decision on WCEE must-carry in the St. Louis area]

{{Paducah TV}}
{{St Louis TV}}
{{Illinois TV}}
{{Missouri TV}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wpxs}}
[[Category:1983 establishments in Illinois]]
[[Category:Daystar Television Network stations]]
[[Category:Retro TV affiliates]]
[[Category:Television channels and stations established in 1983]]
[[Category:Television stations in St. Louis]]
[[Category:Television stations in the Paducah–Cape Girardeau–Harrisburg market]]